assistance for scenery around my roundhouse

[Rick Bradley]

Hello everyone [:)] i am new to this group. I am curious if any one can provide me with some samples of a turntable and roundhouse with item, structures and MOW that would be hanging around this area? I have a Heljan 6 stall and i think it is a 110 ft turntable it is bigger than a 90ft (i din't have that cool little ruler) Anyways hopin for a response

[dehusman]

Around a roundhouse there woould be spare parts on pallets, racks of pipe and sheet metal, a enclosure to hold welding tanks, scrap metal bins, tanks of lube oil and kerosene, tanks of fuel oil or a coal box for the forge and heat, and a big air compressor and air tank.

Unless you are modeling the diesel era when steam was retired, there probably wouldn't be much in the way of MofW equipment around.

The ground would be most gravel or paved and soaked in oil and grease.

Dave H.

[cbq9911a]

The three big scenery items around a roundhouse would be water penstocks, a coaling tower, and a sandhouse. The water penstocks are the most important; there wouldn't be a water tower since the locos would use city water. If there's no room for a coaling tower locos would get their coal using a belt loader or even a clamshell crane.

Also a diesel fuel facility if you're modelling the period 1935 - 1960.

[Rick Bradley]

around the building would there be concrete or would it be dirt, gravel? does it depend on the budget of that particular yard? how many water spouts would there be, what would be considered a medium size yard, iam trying to stick to around the 40's, very hard to do. We have 3 yards here in St Thomas the NYC, Pere Marquette, Canadian National and the L&PS all came through here- but do you think i can find anybody to ante up some infomation!!

[dehusman]

Kalmbach sells a book on engine terminals. You might want to consider buying that. It would answer a lot of questions for you and has pictures.

Dave H.

[ndbprr]

Every picture I have seen of the real thing has minimal parts and equipment laying around - outside. Safety first and that stuff breeds a situation where sloppiness is encouraged. Check any picture of any real engine terminal and you will see what I mean. Inside you need tool lockers, burning torches on carts, nut and bolt bins and other common materials - all neatly stored and orderly. You should be able to find interior pictures of roundhouses on the internet to guide you.

[tjsmrinfo]

RMC also did a book of engine terminals and line side structures. some other things might be grass/weeds growing up out of the rocks and/or tracks as these ares probably werent paved prior to WW2

tom

[Bergie]

The book that Dave mentioned above is called The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals. It contains several photos that will be helpful for you.

Good luck,
Erik

[Anonymous]

Howdy.

I think the best example of a steam era roundhouse to be found today belongs to that of the East Broad top Railroad in Rockhill furnace PA. This town has everything (including the Calendars from 1954 still hainging on the walls) from a " modern" steam facility. Actually they have the entire foundry, coal facility and everything. IF you get a chance to visit, or go to the website www.febt.org it should provide you with some good pics. OR the book on the EBT by Mallory hope Farrell. Goodluck.

Shayman G.W.R

[tomikawaTT]

At a large steam facility there might be a small separate building where the rather large variety of lubricants needed would be stored, either in drums or in bulk in underground tanks. There is such a building at Steamtown (Scranton, PA) now used as a gift shop but with a lot of the old lube plumbing still intact.
Of course, if the pre-diesel N&W is the prototype, the full scale lubritorium is the way to go. Looks sort of like a short diesel shop, but was nothing of the kind!

[oldyardgoat]

One building missing from the above listings is the all-important boiler house at, or close to, the roundhouse, which supplied live steam to keep engines warm for immediate use. Pipes from the boiler house could also be found going to other places (like the sand-drying house) on high stantions over the tracks and yard. Water was another thing found on the grounds, as steam engines constantly dripped, wheezed, and vented. Hot water dripping on creosote ties created one of the fragrances of the steam engine terminal.
Another source is old modeling and prototype RR magazines from the 1950s, if you can find them (train shows and RR swapmeets are a good hunting ground).
If any M/W equipment was found near a roundhouse, it would have been a "hook", steam driven derricks would have needed steam from the boiler house, and/or snow plows and spreaders, steam types for the same reasons (just convenient to include wedge plows and boom tenders, etc., in the same area). These "track-clearing" types of equipment were stationed in or near smaller or mid-sized terminals so that they could be coupled to an available locomotive at a moments notice. At large terminals, they were nearby, possibly in their own "yard".
Except for the ash, coal tower receiving, inspection, and turntable pits, the and the roundhouse floor, the grounds were natural ground. Even major terminals like Cheyenne (Wyo.), where the "Big Boys" (4-8-8-4) rested, were mostly natural ground. Trees and other vegatation was not an unfamiliar sight at smaller terminals. I remember a big old box elder near the roundhouse office/locker room at the long gone Rice Yard on the C&S at Denver, Colo. More trees, cottonwoods, lined the bank of the South Platte River adjacent to the roundhouse.
I remember sitting in the cool shade of that box elder, listening to the cicada/locust "singing" in the nearby cottonwoods, while watching C&S no. 807 (USRA heavy 2-8-2) switching the yard in the summer 1958, and smelling the dripping water from a leak in a steam pipe hitting a tie in a nearby track. Peaceful.
Ardenastationmaster.

[fwheadon]

Consider using cinders for the ground cover between the tracks and adjacent to the actual bulding(s). This was a common practice during the steam era. Oil and grease stains would be common as would the effect of "blowing down" each locomotive whenit left the roundhouse after sitting for any period of time. This would lighten the colour of the cinders.
Another building to consider is a steam plant with its own fuel (coal or oil) supply track. This building would have a boiler and would provide steam to locomotives if their fires wre killed during a maintenance procedure, or during a couple of days shut down. Often overhead piping, wrapped in asbestos was used to carry steam from the plant to the roundhouse, to ready tracks for locomotives, to passenger cars that were on standby and to an auxiliary train to have it always ready to go to a wreck site.

[Anonymous]

I have both the Kalmbach book and the Carstens (RMC), and if you can afford them, I recommend both. The Carstens book, "Locomotive Terminals & Railroad Structures", is just loaded with atmospheric photos of engine facilities and other RR structures (really get you in the mood!) and articles on building everything from a roundhouse to several different kinds of sand houses and/or towers. The comment about oil houses is accurate, and most roads mixed their own lubricating and fuel oils (for headlights--back in the days of old--caboose lamps, etc.) It was usually a brick or stone structure tucked out of the way in the yard, all by itself if possible. If you don't have a boiler house, boilers were often in an addition tacked onto the roundhouse--but not open to the interior, unless an automatic sliding fire door was provided.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=121883

if your layout is modern

[jwar]

In addition to the above, a sand car parked near the sanding towers, tank cars for fuel, shipping and recieving building with dock for unloading box cars with supplies. Also most forget the roundhouse office and the crew office that the called up crews got thier orders, as the crew walked out to the outbound lead to there assigned engines.